{"id":881583,"date":"2026-04-09T03:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T03:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/881583\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T03:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T03:43:15","slug":"woman-pastor-charged-after-man-in-60s-dies-in-birmingham-baptism-ceremony-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/881583\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman ‘pastor’ charged after man in 60s dies in Birmingham baptism ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter following a baptism ceremony in Birmingham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cheryl Bartley, 48, faces one charge of gross negligence manslaughter over her role as a pastor during a baptism, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.<\/p>\n

She is due to appear in court next month.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Man punched in the head in Birmingham as police issue CCTV appeal<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

It comes after Robert Smith, 61, died after a \u2018medical emergency\u2019 at an address in Slade Road in the Stockland Green area of Erdington<\/a> on Sunday, October 8, 2023.<\/p>\n

Police and ambulance crews were called to the scene shortly after 1.30pm. The ambulance service sent two ambulances, a paramedic officer, and a critical care car from Midlands Air Ambulance<\/a> to the \u2018private address\u2019.<\/p>\n

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He was given \u2018advanced life support\u2019 but nothing could be done to save him.<\/p>\n

West Midlands Police said in a statement: “A woman has been charged in connection over the death of a man in Erdington in October 2023.<\/p>\n

“Robert Smith, 61, from London, died following an incident at an address on Slade Road on 8 October 2023.<\/p>\n

“A post mortem revealed he died from drowning.<\/p>\n

“Cheryl Bartley from Birmingham has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter.<\/p>\n

“The 48-year-old was charged today (8 April) and released on bail to appear at Birmingham Magistrates\u2019 court on 14 May.”<\/p>\n

Malcolm McHaffie, Head of the Special Crime Division at the CPS, said: \u201cWe have decided to prosecute Cheryl Bartley, 48, with one count of gross negligence manslaughter in relation to her role as a pastor during a baptism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis follows the death of 61-year-old Robert Smith from Brixton in south London, who died from drowning at an address in Slade Road, Erdington<\/a> on 8 October 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have worked closely with West Midlands Police<\/a> as it has carried out its investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remind all concerned that criminal proceedings against this defendant are active and that she has the right to a fair trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is vital that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Bartley will appear at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, May 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter following a baptism ceremony in Birmingham. Cheryl Bartley, 48,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7820],"tags":[249364,855,748,249363,28432,393,22048,4884,249365,31075,22416,16,15,7830],"class_list":["post-881583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-birmingham","tag-baptism-ceremony","tag-birmingham","tag-britain","tag-cheryl-bartley","tag-crown-prosecution-service","tag-england","tag-erdington","tag-great-britain","tag-gross-negligence-manslaughter","tag-midlands-air-ambulance","tag-robert-smith","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-west-midlands-police"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116372688481505207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}